Care provider ‘Netflix for health’ will offer UK subscribers who want to beat NHS delays consultant appointments within 48 hours for £20 a month
- The MyWay service is a ‘first of its kind’ solution set to beat NHS wait times
- Subscriptions for patients start at £20 per month for a minimum of 12 months
A private healthcare provider has launched a ‘Netflix-style’ service that gives subscribers access to consultants within 48 hours.
The MyWay service, which has been created by Circle Health Group, is a “one-of-a-kind solution” that aims to help patients overcome NHS waiting times and appointment delays in the UK.
Subscriptions to the service start at £20 per month, and patients must sign up for a minimum of 12 months. But only people who have been using the service for 30 days will be able to access speed dating with consultants.
MyWay offers access to a GP consultation in about a day, while in-person appointments as well as scans and blood tests are available soon after.
The launch of the service comes as the consultants staged their first strike in more than a decade earlier this week.
A private healthcare provider has launched a ‘Netflix-style’ service giving subscribers access to consultants within 48 hours for £20 a month.
The MyWay service, which has been created by Circle Health Group, is a “one-of-a-kind solution” that aims to help patients overcome NHS waiting times and appointment delays in the UK.
The launch of the service comes as the consultants staged their first strike in more than a decade earlier this week.
Circle Health said the subscription service will allow people with health problems to return to work sooner as increasing numbers of workers are forced to stay home due to long-term illnesses.
To sign up for the service, patients must complete a simple ‘five box’ process compared to the more time-consuming questionnaires for purchasing life insurance.
Mr Paul Manning, consultant surgeon at Nottinghamshire University Hospital NHS Trust, which designed the service, said the Telegraph: ‘The patients we are seeing now are more acute and less able to return to work.
“In the UK, there is a large provision gap for people who are concerned about long waiting lists taking them out of the workforce, but find private health insurance too expensive or complex, particularly sole traders, small business owners or people with any kind of pre-existing condition.”
On Thursday, thousands of top doctors in England went on strike in an ongoing dispute over pay, which will last until 7am on Saturday.
Thousands of operations, procedures, and appointments have been canceled and are being rescheduled as a result.
It came just two days after junior doctors staged a five-day strike, the longest in NHS history.
More than 24,000 consultants voted on the British Medical Association (BMA) ballot for industry action last month, with the vast majority, 86 per cent, voting in favour.
The government has told consultants they will receive a 6 per cent pay rise, but the BMA has called this “parochial” and said doctors have seen take-home pay fall in real terms by more than a third in the last 14 years.
According to the BMA, consultants with a 2003 contract earn a starting salary of £88,364 in basic salary, which rises to £119,133 after around 19 years.
The Department of Health said additional payments, such as clinical excellence awards and cash for being on call, would bring the average NHS pay for consultants in 2023/24 to around £134,000.
